Medical pumps have been known for several years and enable the administration of medications to a patient in small doses and continuously. Such pumps are of small dimensions and are devised so as to be carried by the patient and to have an autonomy of several days, which permits the patient to be no longer confined to bed and to circulate freely. In particular such pumps permit the patient to live at home without being permanently under medical observation.
The absence of medical personnel observing such patients and the good functioning of their pumps has led the health authorities to require that such pumps be provided with numerous systems of security.
Thus, such pumps are generally programmed in advance in order to stop functioning at the end of a given time and furthermore all misfunctioning of the pump such as obstruction of a channel or appearance of excessive pressure is detected and brings about the immediate stoppage of the pump.
Nevertheless, it would be desirable to provide complementary security arrangements. In effect, the invalid carrying the pump may feel indisposed at a given instant and wish to stop his pump, even if the latter is functioning in a perfectly correct manner. However, it cannot be envisaged to provide a simple stop/go switch for then the invalid, after having stopped the pump, could put it back into operation whenever he so desired without following the dosage and the administration sequence of the medication provided by the medical practitioner. This would be contrary to the mandatory security standards and to the requirements of the medical corps and it is why it is necessary to have irreversible means for interrupting the functioning of the pump.
The purpose of the invention is to respond to these imperatives.